After visiting 20 new countries in 2012, across four continents, I was feeling burnt out by the end of last year. I chose to spend most of 2013 living and working in Medellin, but I still managed to squeeze in some travel within Colombia, as well as North and Central America.

The clock tower entrance to Cartagena's Old City

Colombia

I spent much of the year in Medellin. In February, I accomplished my biggest goal of the year, publishing my first book, the Medellin Travel Guide.

Mexico

My trip to Mexico was the travel highlight of 2013. I crammed so much into my five weeks there, it took me six months to write thirty articles from the trip. Colombia aside, I've never written so much about a country.

Canada

I flew from Cancun to Toronto to attend the 2013 Travel Blog Exchange (TBEX) conference. The highlight was seeing and hanging out with my friends from all corners of the world in person, as well as making many new friends.

After the conference, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do a day trip to nearby Niagara Falls.

The beach on Kuanidup, one of the many islands making up San Blas

Panama

My one and only new country for 2013 was Panama, which I visited for two weeks en route back to Colombia. The first thing I did was see the Panama Canal, which was rather anticlimactic. Seriously, you have to go, but it's not exciting. An hour is all you need.

From the capital, I flew to David, and took a short bus to Boquete where I bumped into my friend Shannon who ended up staying at the same hostel as me for a few nights. The highlight of Boquete was the Dos Jefes organic coffee farm tour run by a retired American who knew nothing about coffee growing when he bought the place.

From Boquete I traveled by land (and water) to the islands of Bocas del Toro. The main island was a bit run down, and my first day trip to other islands was full of rain, but the weather cleared up for my last day. It would've been more fun with friends.

I flew back to Panama City from Bocas, and immediately booked a three-day trip to the San Blas Islands. This was the highlight of my trip to Panama. I stayed in a thatched bungalow on the island of Kuanidup, which was no more than 100 meters long. I'd love to go back again in a few years.

2014 – The Year Ahead

It wasn't until the last few days when I began to reflect on 2013 that I began to think I played it a little too conservatively.

I've already decided to kick off 2014 in Central America, with visits to Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, before returning to Colombia.

These are all countries I'd like to know better, but they're not destinations I lay awake at night fantasizing about.

For Fall 2014, I've decided to pick a dream destination I can throw out into the great big universe. It's a place I tried to go in 2008 during my trip around the world, but was denied days before departure.

It's a place where the native culture is systematically being destroyed day by day. I fear if I don't go soon, there may be nothing left worth seeing.

I'm talking about Tibet.

And once I began bouncing the idea around in my mind, a larger Asia trip began to take shape.

This is the a three-month trip I'm currently thinking about for Fall 2014 –

Mid-September: Arrive in Beijing, China

Enter Tibet by rail – 2 weeks (including Mt. Everest)

Nepal – 2 weeks (including Royal Chitwan Park)

Bhutan – 7 days

Dhaka, Bangladesh – 3 to 5 days

Myanmar – 2 to 3 weeks (if I can get a visa from Bangladesh, otherwise fly in via Bangkok)

Vietnam – 2 to 3 weeks

Mid-December: Leave for United States

The last time I attempted to get into Tibet independently was tricky. I got lucky that the travel agency I used was able to obtain a rail ticket for me. This time around, I'd prefer to partner with a company for a group tour.

Package trips to North Korea are also growing in popularity, which would give me a chance to see South Korea too, but I'd rather see Tibet, Bhutan, and Myanmar before the country of a brutal military dictatorship (which was part of the reason I skipped Myanmar in 2008).

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South Korea is great, but please don’t visit North Korea and basically be sponsoring the government! Sadly, North Korea tours are growing in popularity because everyone wants to do things few have done, to be different ;(

Lovely photos of mexico, Panama and Colombia. I’d love to visit all of them.

I know, and I’m admit it’s tempting to join one of those North Korean tours (a friend is writing a guest post I’ll publish here soon based on his experience).

Traveling to Tibet continues to be controversial, especially by the Chinese-built railway, but my hope is more good comes of it than not going at all.

It was kind of hard to skip Myanmar in 2008 (also in part because of a typhoon), and then within a few years see it start to open up and become one of the hottest new destinations. I felt like I should’ve just gone in 2008 and I would’ve been ahead of the curve instead of behind it.

Sound like it’s been an excellent year for you! Ive just seen the New Year in standing in the rain and cold in London but in 2014 I’ll be celebrating on a beach in Thailand. Thanks for continuing to share your stories with us. It’s an inspiration.

Hi Dave, I think your plans for 2014 are great….Good Luck that it will all come to fruition. I have been to all those places excepting Tibet which I tried to get to in February 2013 when I did North West India and Bhutan. I’ve just had a search of it again for this year and I think the only way is via Beijing in a group as I also travel alone! I loved Bhutan and travelled there during a festival, it was amazing, I saw loads and again I could not get my own way around, I had to hire a driver and guide, expensive… Try and get a companion or a few of you the cost will decrease, but they went out of their way to get me to many places, some were not even on the itinerary and they were great. Happy Travels and thanks for all your pictures.

Sounds like a great year you have planned Dave. I have beeb spending a lot of time in Latin America lately too and feel that it is time to spread my wings and explore Asia. I would love to see Bhutan, as I was just reading a Nat Geo article about it and it sounds fascinating